Innovation starts with inspiration that may come from any industry. The greatest leaps are often based on simple core concepts. Understanding core concepts and apply them to new situations leads to great strategies. May some of the following examples inspire you as much as they do us.
Reshaping an industry is no easy task. Reshaping several industries is close to impossible for one company to achieve. And yet, that is exactly what Apple has accomplished. The iPod allowed listening to music anytime, anywhere. It totally reshaped the music industry. The iPhone created mobile access to a wealth of information. It reshaped several traditional industries, including personal computer, telecom, movie, TV and gaming industry.
Combining new technologies into innovative applications, putting it in carefully crafted designs and above all designing it for ease of use, appeared to be the recipe. And Apple has developed that recipe to perfection. Aggressively adopting new technologies, and relentlessly leaving old ones behind are an important part of Apple’s innovation strategy.
The company is now one of the largest companies in the world, and the question is not if they will reshape further industries, but when and which. Automotive? Healthcare? Finance?
Space travel has long been a thing for governments. Achieving the goal was more important than the cost to do so. With commercial aerospace-companies arriving on the scene, this all changed. As with any company strategy, the business-model needs to be sustainable. Replicating the current approach, just more efficient, was not the answer.
The solution is: reusability. When a rocket is launched, don't throw it away, but recover it and use it again. Ten, maybe hundred times again. SpaceX has embraced this strategy and reduced the cost for payload sent into space from 54,500 $/kg to 2,720 $/kg. Rockets landing back at the launch platform where they lift-off just minutes before, amazing! Combined with smart rocket designs, efficient processes and a slick marketing machine, a trip to Mars will soon be a reality.
In the early 1900's, making a photograph was cumbersome. Large plates of glass, long shutter times and massive equipment. Not the stuff one would bring on a holiday.
In 1913 it was Oscar Barnack who came up with the idea to flip 35mm celluloid film as it was used in film-cameras on it's side, allowing the exposure of multiple 24x36mm photo's on a continuous roll of film. He took a 50mm lens that had a wide enough imaging circle to cover this format and put it in a relatively small camera-body. He had invented the first 'full-frame camera'. Due to the war, it took until 1923 until Leica put the camera, currently referred to as 'Ur-Leica' on the market.
Flipping film on it's side had enabled mobile photography. A new tool that would document the world's history. The Leica brand still today stands for innovation and ultimate quality and includes some of the best cameras around. Full-frame is still the standard and focal-lengths of even mobile phone cameras are expressed as their 'full-frame equivalent'.
